Traffic

Well, after the easy journeys of last week, this week started with a snarl as traffic between Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester was moving like an asthmatic snail with athlete's foot and an ingrowing toenail traversing a cold syrup runway against the wind.

At work we greeted some new colleagues and had the usual weekly review. Then it was back to the documents and attempting to clear the last review comments and get a few more approved.

A quick trip to Nandos for some chicken and salad preceded the hotel check-in and chat with the Silver Vixen who has been at a workshop today, learning some new techniques with her sewing machine.

Time

Time seems to be the topic of the day. The clocks went back, giving us an extra hour over night. This morning the papers are full of discussion regarding keeping the clocks at BST all year round. Needless to say this is raising pathetic arguments and emotive statements like "living on Berlin Time". It is infantile statements like that which make you realise the argument is essentially sound. After all, it is well known that once Hitler, Nazism or the War is invoked in an argument, then it is proof that the argument has been lost by the person or group raising the comparison.

GF has enjoyed the day. He helped the Silver Vixen turn yesterday's diagrams and plans into reality. Well, he helped with the measurements and the angles! This was followed by a most satisfactory couple of hours with Harry and the boys at White Hart Lane (on TV).

Tomorrow reality returns with a bump.

Helping Hand

Today saw the Gorse Fox trying to act as the helping hand. The exhibition at the local community centre has come to an end and it was time to help take down all the quilts and other projects that had been exciting public for the last month. It didn’t take too long, but did feature several anxious moments as GF tried to find dropped pins.

Back home, the Silver Vixen is in the final stages of a particular quilt. This involves using a particular technique to pick out some shapes around its border. This is where the Gorse Fox came in useful. He created a scaled version of the quilt and then tried to illustrate the various options that SV was considering so that she could see the effect and also get the basic measurements.

Yeah, right

Apparently Bill Gates reckons that being a billionaire is overrated. Well the Gorse Fox would rather not take his word for it and suggests he drops a billion or two into GFs account so that he can be the judge of that!

Suitability

GF was talking to a colleague who was thinking of moving home. He lives in Manchester, but he and his wife have realised they are not really suited to life there. Neither has webbed feet,

Blog Anniversary

Well, today sees the completion of 7 years blogging, without missing a day. Well over 5,900 blog entries have been recorded.

Another good day

Though the first meeting of the morning over-ran, the rest of the day went pretty smoothly. At lunchtime GF ran a team meeting for his techies and took the opportunity to impress on them the fact that the client is actually document-driven more than anything else, and that for the remainder of the programme the production of documents will be a key focus as that is the only way we will get their approval to proceed through each stage.

GF got away from Bristol slightly earlier than expected, but the traffic dictated that those extra minutes were eaten up. By the time GF was on the motorway he was running later than usual, and worse still – he was feeling drowsy. A ten-minute power-nap at Membury Services sorted that out.

Home finally.

Better

Today was much better. THe Gorse Fox was offsite attending a planning review and this meant a leisurely start and a passive day where his attention was required but actual intervention was sparse and though he had to review some documents the recent patterns of effort seemed distant.

A couple of late afternoon conference calls capped the day, and the Gorse Fox pottered through the traffic, listening to his book as he found his way back to the hotel.

Dinner was meant to be at Nandos, but they were busy, and so were several other restaurants, so GF ended up at Giraffe.

Smug

The Gorse Fox is feeling smug. Two further documents released, one written from scratch. Now only three to go, one for the GF to finish off, and two others that GF is depending colleagues to produce. He has had to change the authors names on all of the documents so that it isn't so obvious that GF has had to step in and write them.

Got a message for nano-sister after her trip to the consultant. Scans are looking promising. Further check in February.

GF has a different day tomorrow. Off site planning meeting. Should be interesting.

Not Bad

Despite the Gorse Fox's expectations, it turned out to be a better day than expected. The journey to Bristol was quick and trouble free, the book that GF is listening to is totally immersive.

Once at work, he managed to stay off-grid for a while and got stuck into another of the missing documents. A meeting interrupted progress, but GF managed to excuse himself from the follow-on meeting. Progress continued well until project managers got involved. At that point a couple of hours was lost, but GF was on a roll. Once troll-free he managed to confirm another document was ready to release, and finished another of his own. GF has been asked to show a series of authors for the documents, even though most were written by him.

Back at the hotel, GF phoned the Silver Vixen then popped out for dinner at Piccolinos.

Troubled–2 (Thought Police)

The Gorse Fox is also troubled by the shenanigans going on in Westminster.

It is becoming clear that open democracy is a myth, and that intervention by the electorate can only be tolerated when its suits the incumbents. We have a request from 100,000+ members of the electorate for a referendum on the subject of our place in the EU. (This, you will remember, was promised by NuLabour in the run up to the Lisbon Treaty, and reneged upon; and again it was promised by the Tories).

Now we find that individual MPs are being “encouraged” to toe the Party Line and vote against giving the electorate a voice. This is troubling, because the Party senses that the electorate may actually dare to come up with an answer that Mandarins and MPs don’t like.

I hope that the Gorse Fox’s MP has the guts and moral fibre to vote with his conscience and represent his constituents. Party politics have a place in our system, but NOT when the electorate is clamouring to be heard. Then it should representation of the people.

Gorse Fox suspects this is effectively a self-destruct button for the Government. Those disenfranchised by the “whip” will flock to the UK Independence Party and the core Tory support will whither.

Now the Gorse Fox should point out, that he has no particular axe to grind regarding the UK position in the EU. Indeed, he is not sure how he would vote in a referendum on the UK’s continued membership. What he really objects to is the arrogance of Westminster dictating what we the electorate should have a say in, and the presumption that they know best.

Troubled–1 (Thought police)

The anti-Christian establishment continues to persecute people for their beliefs and the “though-police” have stepped in.

We see reports of a Christian making comments on his Facebook page, expressing an opinion regarding gay-marriage in Church. It was not anti-gay marriage, it was questioning the appropriateness of such an event in Church. This was not a public pronouncement, but one only visible to his circle of “friends”. One of the “friends” reported his innocuous (but not politically correct) comment to the Housing Trust where they work. As a result he has been demoted and lost nearly a third of his salary.

Martyrdom in the UK is not as violent as it used to be, but God, Supreme Being, Heaven, someone help you if you if you should should have an opinion that may not match that of the PC brigade.

Smooth

It has been a lovely day. Work has not sullied the grey matter at all. GF has cleared the problem with iTunes updating the iPad. It turns out that a factory reset and restore was all that was needed.

The real challenge of the day came in trying to fix the coffee maker. Reading the instructions GF suspects he needs to clean the infuser. The instructions say that two red buttons had to be pressed to release the infuser. The diagrams show the locations of the buttons on either side of said infuser. Problem is, they also show the infuser as being vertically mounted, with access to both sides. In practice, on our model, the infuser is mounted diagonally and one of the buttons is completely inaccessible. GF ended up writing to the manufacturer. Let's see what comes back.

Tickets for the November international between England and Spain have been ordered. Should be a good night out.

TGIF

It may not be original, but Thank God it’s Friday. This week seems to have been a one long relentless round of smoothing things over, being reasonable, and writing documents to patch up holes. Each day has stretched to eleven or more hours, and the Gorse Fox is going boss-eyed. The document that is open in front of him, is not progressing. The creative juices have stopped flowing. Nevertheless, GF has managed to complete and publish 3 of the nine required documents today.

Laptop is now closed, and the Gorse Fox can hear the plaintiff cry of fine bottle of Merlot begging for his attention.

The real crisis of the day, however, was not the state of the documents, but rather the fact that the coffee maker seems to have failed. Loud rasping sounds seem to emit from its workings, and no water traverses the tubes. This will need some attention tomorrow.

Good start

Good start to the day with the first call coming in just after seven thirty. This does not bode well for the day.

Air Movement Devices

It seems that this week is being retained as some form of punishment for having taken time off. A number of design documents are outstanding and at the moment the Gorse Fox has no access to resources who can write them. This is being used as a cudgel, and GF has to smile keep calm and carry on.

At least he finally escaped and headed home to Sussex. The audio book “Sanctus” playing in the car kept the journey interesting and came to a satisfying conclusion. It had been a good book.

Once home he settled down with the Silver Vixen and saw the last half hour of the Spurs game (an edgy 30 minutes, but 1-0 win) over the Russian team Rubin Kazam.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Bad start

It was a bad start. Gorse Fox woke early as usual, but once showered and ready it was clear that the newspaper had not been delivered. GF likes his morning fix of journalism before breakfast and the trip to work.

Talking of work, the day has not been significantly better than yesterday. The Gorse Fox has spent much of the day resisting the temptation of ripping off someone's leg and beating him over the head with it until he steps up to the responsibilities that has been avoiding. This has meant that GF is again doing several day jobs at a time.

Back in the hotel, GF phone the Silver Vixen - she was having dinner with Rick Wakeman and the headmistress and it sounded as if they were having a riot. The headmistress has a broken shoulder at present. The result of a Strictly Come Breaking competition. Surgical intervention is scheduled for next week, so hopefully all will be well.

Not Good

It has not been a good day. Laptop took an age to boot this morning, network was up and down all day (when it was working at all), MiFi needed subscription update, and GF found that the team had sleep-walked into committing to a whole series of documents that were not planned, but we're now expected in the next week or two.

GF had his work cut out remaining calm. However, he has now spent several hours trying to grab the problem (if not the project manager) by the neck. He's chatted with the client and they have reset and agreed several sets of expectations. He's not saying that things are under control, but they are less out of control.

Chiquito was chosen for dinner, but was extraordinarily slow. Back at the hotel, GF found that his room key had deactivated and had to return to reception to get it recoded. A final slap from fate.

Grind stone starts to spin

It was a six o'clock start, but only had to get as far as the study. Gorse Fox had decided that there would be loads of email and he needed to be connected to a fast network. Over 400 emails had come in during the previous two weeks, and most needed to be read and considered, if not actually answered.

Eventually all was clear (6 hours later) and the Gorse Fox hit the road. This, it turned out was a good decision. The journey was only two and half hours, whereas a colleague had taken three and half hours earlier in the morning.

Once in the office it was clear that the important changes that GF had been working on had been approved. Other areas had not moved on as much as hoped and GF will have to get more involved than he wanted.

All change

The last day before Gorse Fox returns to work. Again the weather was superb (well, the sun does shine on the righteous). We took the day quietly, sorting out bits and pieces, enjoying the sunshine and listening to the sound of the waves lapping at the shore.

During the afternoon, GF watched the Spurs game with Newcastle. (Wasn't impressed that Jasper, the cat, was watching all decked out in black and white). The draw was probably a fair result, but then again, GF would have taken a win in place of fairness!

GF managed to chat online with Cousteau-cub. She hasn't been affected by the flooding in Thailand. That seems to have been concentrated on the central plain and the Gulf of Thailand. Indeed, she said that the winds had changed and that the weather was now getting really hot again. Diving has been good, and she and the Coventry Hobbit have been very busy.

Scam bait

The Gorse Fox was mistaken for scam bait. A phone call came through and an Indian gentleman tried to convince the Gorse Fox that he worked for Microsoft’s technical team. To prove his credentials he quoted the license number of the PC and said they were receiving an inordinate number of error messages from that machine.

GF’s antenna started to detect a rodent.

He then carefully instructed GF how to view the various events that the PC was recording and declared what a calamitous state it was in. The Gorse Fox played along. This was elaborate!

As long as he was suggesting the execution of benign commands, GF continued to ramp up his phone bill. Then came the denouement. He requested that the Gorse Fox access the internal technical support system at Microsoft. (err, if it is the Internal support system, why would GF be able to access it?).

The address of the system was given as a web address with AMMYY as part of the URL (GF won’t enter the whole thing to prevent anyone accidentally clicking on it). Why would an internal Microsoft web site not have some symbolic acronym for Microsoft somewhere in the URL?

Gorse Fox thanked the gentleman for his attention and told him that he would not be accessing the aforementioned address. It is, after all, a well known tool for taking over access to the PC and giving access to the hard drive.

The Gorse Fox is getting old, but he’s not senile yet!

Tranquil

The Gorse Fox found Michelham to be a most tranquil spot, and thought you might like a few more images from the day.

Some swans enjoying the autumn sunshine in the moat.

The Priory from the eastern end of the garden.

One of the many pieces of sculpture that are dotted around the grounds.

The seat of wisdom.

The Priory

No, not THAT one.

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had to hang around a bit to await the local Estate Agent. New to the area, he wanted to come and see the house and familiarise himself with the property.

We were ready to go as soon as he had gone. Heading east we crossed the County boundary and entered East Sussex to visit Michelham Priory.

On the outskirts of Upper Dicker, Nr. Hailsham the Priory boasts England’s longest water-filled moat, and is approached by the gatehouse shown in the picture above.

The house dates back to 1229 when the Priory was founded and was lived in by Augustinian canons until the Dissolution in 1537. We had picked a fantastic day to visit, the sun was bright and there was not a cloud to be seen; and this, in case you have forgotten, is mid October.

The Church of the Holy Trinity was destroyed and the house underwent various transformations including the addition of an extensive Tudor wing. What we now see is charming structure cared for by the Sussex Archaeological Society.

Excellent trip

Quiet Day

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had a quiet day. Ocado were scheduled to deliver the week's shopping mid-morning, and there was dry cleaning to collect and a magazine to seek out.

Alongside all of that excitement the Gorse Fox decided it was time to sort out his smartphone. It is a great phone, but it keeps running out of space. A factory reset cleared the phone and the bit by bit the apps were re-installed. All in all, this seems to have freed up about 60MB of space and that should allow quite some leeway.

Finally the Gorse Fox has updated the iPad to iOS5. Seems ok so far.

Autumn Colours, again

Starting just as rush hour finished, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen headed across the county to meet up with Betty and Barney Rubble at Sheffield Park Garden.

This National Trust treasure is tucked away, just north of Chaily, and exploded into a riot of colour in the autumn. We had agreed to meet up for a coffee and then take a stroll.

Whilst we had been before, it was the first visit for our elderly friends. It was immediately clear that they were impressed. No untoward comments were made regarding Barney leaving his camera at home (after all, after the mishaps of last year’s trip to Florence, GF could hardly cast the first stone).

We followed a broadly clockwise route around the lake, making a few detours here and there. The advantage that we had for this visit was that, being mid week, the gardens were very quiet.

Whilst the sky was overcast, there were occasional breaks in the cloud, and it was quite warm. As we progressed, however, there was a brief ten minutes of drizzle but we were pretty well sheltered by the trees, so it was no hardship.

At lunch we returned to the tea rooms, but seeing the queue, retreated to the car and drove to The Bull at Newick where we had a splendid lunch. Returning to the Gardens, we set out to explore some of the paths we had missed in the morning. By now the sky was clearing and it was really quite cheery.

Finishing off the tour, we returned to the tea rooms before picking up the road home.

Autumn

The nice thing (ok, one of the nice things) about being on holiday is the ability to please yourself and choose to do something at a moment’s notice.

The weather was warm, but a bit overcast. Not too far from here is High Beeches, one of a trio of gardens that were created and nurtured by the same extended family. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had never visited it before, and today seemed like just the opportunity.

We arrived early enough to pop into the tea rooms for a cup of the eponymous brew and a snack. Then as the clock struck one, we headed for the entry to the gardens. Being early, as we were, we had the place virtually to ourselves.

It was one of those gardens that kept revealing new views and new palettes of colour as you wandered the grass paths.

As the sun broke through, the leaves exploded into their autumnal hues and whether close up, or landscape views, the place was enchanting.

It was a charming way to spend an hour or so.

Gadgetry

Gadgets come to the rescue. A certain gadget was secreted in a secure hiding place before we left for Malta.

The problem with this is that we had forgotten the secret hiding place. After some thought we resorted to Mobile.me to switch on the audible beacon that would reveal where the iPad was hidden. A few moments later an anonymous box started to beep and the lost gadget revealed itself.

Still off

The Gorse Fox begins his second week of vacation – a deeply satisfying thought!

A Nice Trip

It has been a nice few days, and we were blown away by how nice the Maltese people were. We had a leisurely start and made our way to the airport where we checked in without incident,arriving back at Gatwick soon after lunch.

As usual, the third world airport facilities meant that we had thirty minutes to wait before we we directed to the baggage carousel. (At Bangkok, you know the carousel before you even disembark).

Quiet afternoon uploading photos.

Next time

Will have to leave Birgu (see comments) for next time. Have run out of time on this brief trip, but would certainly come back another time.

Music Accordion to the Gorse Fox

We were shown to our table in the vast restaurant. In the centre of the room was an archipelago of islands hosting every kind of food you could imagine. Things were looking promising.

Then the Gorse Fox noticed a small stage in the corner. On it was a drum kit and double bass. It could well be the harbinger of an excellent evening. Three musicians headed for the stage. A drummer dressed in the mandatory black, the bassist in a white shirt and black slacks, and a hobbit dressed in black who spirited an electric accordion from nowhere.

Now, noise can be evocative. The sound of waves on the shore, or leaves rustling in the trees can make the heart soar. Similarly, the sound of fingernails on a blackboard, Ed Miliband, or a Stuka dive-bomber can have you clawing at your bleeding ears to make it stop. The accordion is orders of magnitude worse. It is Satan's own instrument wheezing and whinging like an asthmatic without his inhaler. It is enough to turn the sweet-natured Gorse Fox into a psychotic axeman charging across the restaurant with a cleaver in one hand and a cast iron pan in the other (to adjust the hobbit's irritating goatee-framed smirk).

It was about as bad as it could get as they worked through every accordion "classic". One (and only one) diner clapped as they finished each number. The rest, like the Gorse Fox, glowered at the moan of the tortured cats (or whatever actually makes the noise) from inside the instrument.

If the EU wants to do something really useful, it should outlaw accordions.

Rant over. (oh yes, the food was excellent).

Unreliable

GF is finding BlogPress to be particularly sensitive (unreliable) when it come to uploading photos. Yesterday, it seemed fine. Today, using the same network, not a hope. Had to use blogger itself for the photos.

Leaving Valetta

Taking the water taxi back to Sliema

Across the Grand Harbour

View across the Grand Harbour

St Johns Square

A nice place for lunch

Side Alleys

St John's Co-Cathedral

Valetta

The plan was to visit Valetta. The plan was to arrive by water, but the choppy seas this morning put pay to that idea. We again purchased a day ticket for the buses and hopped on the No. 13 heading for the town.

It didn't take long before we were rubbing shoulders with the general tourists and wandering the streets of the town. We stopped for a coffee and watched the world go by. It was clear that the real throng clustered round the squares by the Co-cathedral, the Library, and the Palace. Being different, we headed off down the side streets.

This gave us the chance to poke our noses into some of the less well known churches, and to see the warren of streets that make up the town. We headed down to the fortifications that protected the harbour entrance and looked across at the ancient fortresses that once guarded against the Turks.
It was time to grab a drink, and so we headed back up towards the main square foe some ice cream and refreshments whilst waiting for St Johns to reopen. There was a flaw in our logic, however. On Saturdays it closes at 12:30, and stays closed!

And so, we never got to see inside.

We wandered down to the ferry and got a water taxi back to Sliema where we waited for the bus to the hotel. Just as the bus came into sight, the rain started and as the bus pulled in a big German woman barged through to the front of the queue, beckoning her husband to follow. The Gorse Fox, in a move that would have earned him a yellow card at Wembley, stepped across the path of the advancing chap and blocked him off entirely. Satisfied GF ushered several people onto the bus in front of him, before clearing his lines.

Quite a satisfactory day.

Choppy

A bit more cloud this morning and the sea looks decidedly choppy. Still a pleasant 26C.

Mdina

After an exceptional night's sleep we had a quiet start the the day. GF caught up on some blogging and checked yesterday's photos and then we headed off to breakfast. A cruise ship was heading for Valetta enjoying the early morning sunshine.


The plan was to head for Mdina. The only part of the plan that was not set, however, was the transport. A taxi would cost 21E each way and take about 25 minutes. A tour bus would cost about 15E each and take a couple of hours. We decided to take public transport. This cost 2.60E each and took about an hour.

Great choice, as it turned out. It gave us a chance to have closer look at Malta as we made our way round. It reminded the Gorse Fox of the North African cities you see in the films. Narrow streets, an air of dilapidation on the outside, tall narrow buildings vying for space. The other impression it gives is that of one mugs metropolis, with no visible demarcation from one town to the next, until you get to middle of the island, where there is some precious open space.


In the middle of the Island rises a bluff. Perched on the bluff is the ancient walled city of Mdina. This is well worth the visit. From the walls you can peer down over the whole island, but within the walls is place of significant peace and tranquility (at least until the tour groups invade the Cathedral). Wonderful place, well worth the visit.


Back at the hotel we had some tea and made for the sun deck. The Silver Vixen wanted some rays and the Gorse Fox wanted a swim. Suffice it to say, Thailand is still preferred for swimming. The pool was very cold (compared to what GF was expecting).

Portomaso by night

Portomaso

The day started at stupid o'clock with a drive to the airport. All was goin well until we arrived. Then the guardians of our security deemed that the clear plastic bags in which we carried out 100ml liquids was too big. We had to transfer into a single bag of their specified dimensions. This proved impossible so one bag had to be checked-in, though GF had fortunately paid for this eventuality in advance.

On the plane, the pilot announced that he had found a dent in the fuselage and the engineers needed to check it and measure it. This would, apparently, take 2 hours. We settled in for a long wait.

Some hour or so later we were informed that this problem had been reported before but that the paperwork had gone missing and until the pilot had seen it, we were going nowhere. Eventually, after two hours, we were cleared and heading for the Med.

The Gorse Fox's first impressions of Malta were of surprise. There is a lot of building going on, but somehow it seems far less "first world" than was expected. Many of the roads were in serious need of repair, and the buildings were in need of a lot TLC.

Arriving at the hotel in Portomaso, we entered palatial surrounding and were greeted with cold fruit juice and delightful staff. Our suite wasn't quite ready, so we were directed to the executive lounge while we waited. Things were looking up!

Once we had taken possession of our suite we headed out for a walk around the marina and the hotel grounds. It was as we reached the furthest point of the Marina that the heavens opened and we got dumped upon. Soaked, we headed back to the hotel and watched the thunder and lightning from our balcony. An hour later, the sun was out and everything was drying up. It was reminiscent of Florida - late afternoon deluge, otherwise warm and sunny.

We met up with the Gorse Fox's nano-sibling and brother-in-law and took a stroll down the hill into St Julian's for a meal. The restaurant had been highly recommended, and we had a very nice (though simple) meal and some local wine before heading out for a stroll by the bay.

A good day (eventually).

Pilot

They have found a dent in the fuselage. Two hour delay expected... and maybe a change of plane.

Silly

What a silly time to be up and about.

Facetime

Received a Facetime call (like Skype, but iPad-to-iPad) from the Gorse Fox's brother-in-law. All sounds well and most satisfactory. It will be fun to catch up with them in the next day or so.

Blogging may be a little sparse for a few days, but GF will retro-blog anything that gets missed.

Just a Case

The Gorse Fox has done it again. There’s something about travel that gets the juices flowing and during a perfectly innocent shopping trip, he ended up looking a roll-aboard bags. One caught his eye. It had the normal empty interior (well you don’t want other peoples’ clothes already filling the space), but in addition to the traditional front pockets, it had a fide flap which concealed a compartment for the laptop.

That was it! Given the existing bag is looking a bit battered and is 1cm too big for the EasyJet carry-on, this new masterpiece of convenient travel engineering had to join the stable of thoroughbred cases, bags, stuffers, and rucksacks that fills the attic.

Core

The hype and expectation in the tech community is reaching fever pitch as Apple prepare to announce something phone-related.

Get a grip. It’s just another smartphone, and you are all being played by the PR machine.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Gorse Fox has spent time today updating various devices, and wandering into town to drop off some dry-cleaning. Even there, he couldn’t get away from the hype. Walking past the greengrocer’s he noticed the window display was all apples!

Not working

There is a great feeling of satisfaction when you can take time off, when the weather is superb, and you know your colleagues are hard at it!

The Silver Vixen has arranged an exhibition of some of the projects and practice pieces at the local community centre. Her fellow contributors turned up to help set up. Gorse Fox helped where he could and finished off by taking photos of the displays.

Testing

Gorse Fox is just testing the Blogger App for Android on his phone. Nothing of great significance here.

That is nice

The phone rang. It was beloved aunt. It is so nice to hear from her, the weekend just keeps getting better. Vacation, brilliant weather, win for Spurs over Arsenal, and now a chat with beloved aunt.

Satisfaction

It is a deeply satisfying weekend when the Forces of Darkness are defeated at White Hart Lane, particularly as Piers Morgan and Arsene Wenger will be apopleptic at the defeat.

Most satisfactory.

Damned cheek

Some nameless erk has attempted to access the Gorse Fox's private blog. Fortunately, Google alerted the Gorse Fox and, within a few moments, he had changed all his access codes.

He would have been pretty bored if he did get through. The blog contained mainly emails between the Gorse Fox and his family from business trips in the mid nineties.

Weather

People complain the English are obsessed by weather. That's true. Living on a small island at the nexus of the European land mass, Atlantic Ocean and North Sea, our weather is extremely variable. Here we are, the beginning of October, with temperatures in high 20s. A superb Indian Summer.

No doubt the terminally stupid will claim it is proof of Global Warming - as if it has never happened before... But forget that it happens frequently enough that we even have a name for it.